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Trucker charged in fatal tour bus crash has been extradited to Riverside County

City News Service
Published 1:39 p.m. PT Nov. 20, 2017

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Video footage from the scene of a crash on I-10, which left 13 dead after a tour bus collided with the back of a big rig truck on Sunday morning.
Zoë Meyers and Colin Atagi/The Desert Sun

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On Oct. 23, 2016, 13 people died after their tour bus collided with a big rig on Interstate 10 near Palm Springs. The National Transportation Safety Board on Oct. 31 will announce results of its year-long investigation into the collision.(Photo: The Desert Sun file photo)Buy Photo

A truck driver involved in a collision with a tour bus in Palm Springs that killed 13 people and injured 31 others was brought back to Riverside County to face more than 40 felony and misdemeanor counts, including vehicular manslaughter, officials confirmed Monday.

Bruce Guilford, 51, of Covington, Georgia, was transported from his home state and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on Friday night, according to county jail records.

An exact arraignment date has not yet been set, but it is expected that Guilford will appear in court as early as Wednesday.

Investigators determined that Guildford fell asleep at the wheel in the early morning hours of Oct. 23, 2016, minutes before a tour bus slammed into the rear of his rig on westbound Interstate 10. Teodulo Elias Vides, owner of the USA Holiday bus company, was killed, along with a dozen of his passengers riding near the front of the bus.

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded last month that both Guildford and Vides were sleep-deprived.

On the day of the crash, Guilford was on his second round trip from Eufaula, Alabama, to Salinas within two weeks, according to an arrest warrant declaration prepared by California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Parent. Guilford had previously driven the route from Oct. 8 to Oct. 18, then departed again on a second trip starting Oct. 19.

Guilford was "not the party determined to be most at fault for this collision," but said his falling asleep behind the wheel "was a substantial factor in the deaths of 13 individuals,'' Parent alleged.

NTSB investigators said Vides had barely slept leading up to the wreck and crashed his bus into the truck at 76 mph despite having about 20 seconds to see the rig and take evasive action. An NTSB report released last month said Vides had slept about four hours in the 35 hours preceding the crash.

NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said, "In this crash, not one but two commercial vehicle drivers -- people who drive for a living -- were unable to respond appropriately to cues that other motorists did act on."